Election 2012

President Holds Significant Lead in Ohio

This is more of an indictment of the Republican primary clown car, and less of a statement about the president's approval, but the president leads by huge margins in Ohio:

On our weekend poll, which got the final result of Issue 2 correct to within a point, Obama led all of his Republican opponents in the state by margins ranging from 9-17 points.

Obama led Mitt Romney 50-41 on our poll. He was up 11 points on Herman Cain at 50-39, 13 on Newt Gingrich at 51-38, 14 on Ron Paul at 50-36, 14 on Michele Bachmann at 51-37 and a whooping 17 points on Rick Perry at 53-36. It used to be Sarah Palin's numbers that we compared to Barry Goldwater, but Perry's deficit would represent the largest Republican defeat in Ohio since 1964.

Yet the president's approval is only 41 percent in Ohio. The Republican field really, really sucks and the swing state voters are quite aware of its total lack of seriousness. Good news for the president for sure, but if unemployment would drop by election day and the nominee is any of the above, he'd win in a landslide.